That’s right; I said “tactile”; no mistake. Cleopatra and the Society of Architects is a fun, component-rich game has a lot of replayability. In this excellent game by Days of Wonder, the players take on the role of ancient Egyptian architects designing the ideal tomb for Cleopatra.

The components for this game are excellent molded plastic pieces that you build throughout the game. The box itself is a part of the “board”, and you will be erecting columns and doors alongside it, mosaics and a throne and on top of it, as well as sphinxes and obelisks before it. It is great for those who like interesting components.

There are cards that represent actions and building materials. Each piece needs a specific number of material cards. There are role cards that allow you to use a character to do an action. Most importantly, though, some of the cards are tainted. You earn corruption tokens by playing tainted cards throughout the game, deposited into your own little pyramid to keep the number secret to those not paying attention.

The game ends when the Cleopatra token gets to the doors and surveys the palace. At this point, corruption matkers are counted and the one with the most gets sacrificed to Sebek, the crocodile god. After that, victory points are counted among the players stil remaining and the highest total wins. It is a fun and thematic game, and the components really enhance the experience!

Dark Ascension is the second set in the Innistrad block (Innistrad was the first set, and Avacyn Restored will follow in May 2012), and it continues the horror theme that was so well started in the first set. It is a small set at 158 cards, as is typical for the second set in a block, and for those who play draft games, it drafts with Innistrad (meaning you would open three packs of this along with three of Innistrad).

The new mechanics introduced are Fateful Hour and Undying. Fateful Hour defines effects that start when your life total is five or less, and Undying means that as long as the creature did not have any +1/+1 counters on it when put into a graveyard from the battlefield, it returns with a +1/+1 counter on it. The mechanics strongly convey the horror theme of the set, I feel.

The primary tribes represented in this set are humans, vampires, werewolves and zombies. Others are present, of course, but these represent the primary conflict on the plane of Innistrad. The backstory is great, and ties in with the primary planeswalker, Sorin. Sorin Markov, by the way, gets a makeover… the version of him that is present is Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. This is an excellent card and is a no-brainer to include in any Black/White deck.

Aside from Sorin, there are some great cards here. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed is a Black zombie cleric (an updated version of Mikaeus , the lunarch) that gives all non-humans +1/+1 and Undying… a Mythic rare deserving of the designation. Feed the Pack is an excellent Green that allows you to sacrifice a creature and put in a number of 2/2 wolf tokens equal to the creature’s toughness, which is great for a Green token deck. Additionally, there are a few double-sided transforming cards that are fun (and each pack contains at least one).

All in all, I like this set. The theme is fun and I am alreqady modifying my favorite Commander deck to include some of these cards. I seriously believe that the Innistrad block is my favorite to date, with a possible exclusion of Zendikar.

The Scars of Mirrodin block, starting with the Scars of Mirrodin set, focuses on the story of the war between the Phyrexians and the Mirrans. For those familiar with the original Mirrodin set, this one, too, introduces a lot of new artifacts. A LOT of artifacts. And that’s a good thing. Though one of the most fragile type of permanants (due to myriad ways to destroy them thoughout all colors), most decks will have at least a few.

The new mechanics for this set are Metalcraft and Infect. Metalcraft encourages artifact-heavy decks in that the mechanic takes effect once you control three or more artifacts. This really helps escalate the power level pretty quick. One of my favorite mechanics, though, is Infect. Creatures with the Infect keyword deal damage to players in poison counters and creatures in -1/-1 counters. Players lose when they have 10 poison counters. I love this! Even a 1/1 “chump” blocker is something you need to consider if it is an infector… and further, it’s a great foil even for indestructible creatures, since the counters can accumulate, and even indestructible creatures go to the graveyard at zero toughness.

I highly recommend this block in general, and this set in particular. Artifacts complement most decks, and Infect… it really changes things!

I have to say I regret not buying more of the New Phyrexia set; most of my exposure has been purchasing singles from the secondary market. But I must say that this is a great capstone to the Scars of Mirrodin block. I am particularly fond of both the Mirrodin- and Phyrexian-themed cards, and draw deeply from those when deckbuilding.

The new mechanic for this set were Phyrexian Mana and Living Weapon. This is a good example of mechanics matching theme. To represent the “desperate last days” of Mirrodin and the “sacrifice for power” theme of the Phyrexians, some cards cost Phyrexian Mana, which can be paid with the appropriate color, or with 2 life each. It’s sort of a “Faustian bargain” or an act of desperation. This really meshes well with the storyline, and I appreciate seeing theme motivate mechanics. The Living Weapon keyword for equipment is also pretty spiffy. These are equipment that are automatically attached to a 0/0 Black Germ creature token upon entering the battlefield.

Wizards of the Coast kind of put it out there that this set might have been called Mirrodin Pure, indicating that the Mirrans had won the war. There was a bit of hype on that, but I am glad that they went with New Phyrexia. The mechanics are great, and I am really liking having some of these cards in my latest deck.

I have played Dungeons & Dragons in its various incarnations for 23 years, and I must say that the Pathfinder RPG is the best implementation of its rules. For those not familiar, Pathfinder is an Open Gaming License (OGL) ruleset based on D&D version 3.5. The OGL allows the use of the base D&D mechanics to make compatible products. Most of these products have not diverged too far from the source material.

Pathfinder is amazing in that it takes everything that the core of Dungeons & Dragons was and makes it all new again. For starters, take the classes. The classes form the basis of the player experience. They are the archetypes from where the most basic of a character’s abilities are derived. In the PFRPG, they have (mostly) done away with “empty” levels (levels in which no new abilities are received). Without exception, levelling up feels like an accomplishment, and not just the stepping stone between you and the next point of interest. Additionally, players have more interesting choices for their characters built into the class (like Rogue Talents, Rage Powers, etc.). And further, the base classes are all playable well into high level (with less emphasis on prestige classes).

This book is a hefty tome, and well worth every cent. The Core Rulebook covers the ground that both the 3.5 Player’s Handbook and the 3. Dungeon Master’s Guide did. With this book, and the Bestiary, you are all set with everything you need to play. I highly recommend trying Pathfinder!

Worldwake is a relatively small set, the second of three in the Zendikar block. One of the best things about this particular set is the expansion of the Allies. Allies are really spiffy cards. If you are familiar with Slivers from a ways back, these build of of that in that most allies increase the effectiveness of the other allies, at least upon entering the field (in design, they were referred to as “super slivers”). Some put +1/+1 counters on themselves and other allies, some will do damage to a target… this mechanic can get sick and ridiculous if you have an effect like Mass Polymorph that allows you to make several enter at once. My wife has a five-color Allies deck (Commander format) that really kicks butt. Perhaps the set’s biggest claim to fame, though, is that it has Jace, The Mindsculptor, one of the most expecnsive Planeswalker cards. Whan last I checked (January ’12), unopened boosters were selling for $12 apiece at my local game store… all due to the fact that there might be a Jace in there. Crazy!

I absolutely love the Rise of the Eldrazi set now… though I recall not being as excited when I was playing it upon release. The thing about this set was that it introduced the Eldrazi creatures and spells, and along with them, the Annhilator mechanic. The Eldrazi are all VERY big. With the exception of a few colored support creatures and the colorless 0/1 Eldrazi spawn, the actual Eldrazi are all at least 7/7; the largest is a whopping 15/15! When these hit the board, they demand an answer. The bad thing is that in Standard or COnstructed, it’s hard to get them onto the table. The Eldrazi spawn help, in that you can sacrifice them for mana, but still… tough. I love them in Commander, though. Other things in this set are the Totem Armor auras, which are spiffy: these are buffs that will go to the graveyard instead of the enchanted creatures. The Level Up creatures are okay, but a bit of a letdown. Interesting mechanic, though, and combines very well with things that Proliferate. Overall, a great set when combining with others. A great capstone to the Zendikar block!

Yomi is also a fighting game, and uses the same ten characters as Puzzle Strike, a game also by Sirlin. They’re both set in the Fantasy Strike universe. Yomi: The Complete First Edition primarily consists of ten 54-card decks. The decks have poker numbers and suits, and can each be used as a standard poker deck, including jokers. Perhaps the first thing you would notice about this game is the art. The art is fantastic, and will remind you somewhat of the Street Fighter franchise. Each deck has about 15 unique and excellent pieces of art (all cards are illustrated, some repeat), plus a unique card back for each character. The decks are beautiful… and the game play is pretty simple. Each player selects a card, that will either be a Throw, Block, Dodge or Attack. You reveal them and compare: Attack beats Throw, Throw beats Block/Dodge, Block/Dodge beats Attack. Sort of a Rock-Paper-Scissors thing. Once you determine the winner of the reveal phase, you can potentially play other cards to combo. You then subtract damage and go to the next round. Each of the 10 characters feels different, and each has their own powers and combo strategies. This game is definitely worth checking out.

Without a doubt, Commander (also known as EDH, or Elder Dragon highlander) format is my favorite way to play Magic: the Gathering. It is a multiplayer format that encourages longer, more social gmaes and politicking is a key to winning. What makes it this way?

1. 100-card singleton decks: No more than 1 card with a given name. You’ll see more variety, and themed decks are easier to play. In the Constructed format, usually cards are added in increments of four to make the deck “do its thing” more consistently. Commander allows you to use fun, neat cards that aren’t always viable for the needs of a Constructed format deck.

2. You always have one creature to cast: Each Commander deck has a general. This is always a legendary creature whose color identity defines your deck. Instead of being in your deck, this card is in the “command zone” and is always available to cast and re-cast. Each casting after the first requires two more colorless mana, though.

3. Higher life totals: Each player has 40 life. And even though life gaining can get sick and ridiculous, it’s not a problem. Why? 21 damage from any one general will put you out of the game.

4. Longer play times: When you want to have a fun evening, a couple hours on a game tends to trump a bunch of 20 minute games. As a “kitchen table” player, I like this much, much more.

Commander format is a great format for casual players like myself. It allows me to choose “cool” cards and not worry that my deck will lose because it doesn’t have the four copies each of the same eight cards everyone else’s deck has. If you play Magic and haven’t tried this, I encourage you to make it a point to build one of these decks and go to town!

What I like about this game is that when you’re done playing, you feel like you’ve played a strategy game… in 30 minutes. Yes, it’s pretty short (at least in our playthroughs). But it feels very wargamey. It is played with decks, each deck representing a faction. Each box has two factions. We liked the Phoenix Elves vs. Tundra Orcs so much we rushed out and bought the Guild Dwarves vs. Cave Goblins a couple days later. It’s played on a grid. Each player has a faction-specific starting setup. You have a main character, your summoner. Your summoner wants to take out their summoner. You use your summoner to bring in units, which move about the board and engage the other summoner’s units. It’s pretty simple, and each faction plays differently. The Master Set is forthcoming, with several new factions and a nice board.

Are any of you familiar with Flying Frog Productions? I certainly am. I really enjoyed playing Last Night on Earth, their scenario-based zombie survival game. Complete with a soundtrack and stunning photographic art, it is a very nice game and worth a playthrough. So we were pretty excited to try out Conquest of Planet Earth, with its quirky 1950’s B-movie saucermen theme. And I love it.

How it looks

For starters, it’s pretty . This game does not use the fun photography and makeup of the Last Night… series. Instead, this goes for a more traditional painted/drawn style. The alien races are all well illustrated and really convey those B-movie tropes. You could totally see these in a monster movie from the 50’s or 60’s, or maybe even off of the original Star Trek series. The Rantillion Beetlemen, the Fishmen of Atlorak, the Vyborian Arbiters… heck, there’s even some warrior-women and and space emperors in faux-Roman clothing. The miniatures are well-scuplted, with four tokens of each color (all the same sculpt), and four unique ally tokens. They very much capture the theme. Embrace the cheesiness! And then there’s the soundtrack…

Player tokens

Why a soundtrack for a game? Why not! On the CD, there are eleven tracks of instrumental music that goes a long way to set the mood for the game. Most of the ten alien races have tracks named after them, themed after their breed of vileness. Crazy, spacey, atmospheric… I highly recommend those of you trying out the game play this in the background. Sure, it’s not absolutely necessary; but don’t let that stop you from turning a playthrough of a boardgame into an experience.

Four different games in one!

For those of you really trying to make the most of your gaming dollar, I want to point out that there are four ways to play this game. That’s right: four. The first is the competitive game. In this, each player plays an alien species bent on taking over the Earth, but there’s these pesky humans in the way… not to mention the other aliens who want this prime real estate! The second is the cooperative game, in which the alien players join forces to take over the Earth, but the humans are much craftier and have a more active resistance. The third is a team game, which has two teams of two aliens fighting for the planet. And the last is the solo game, which is just like the cooperative but it is played solitaire, with the player choosing to play one or more alien races, again, trying to subjugate Earth. Of those four, the competitive and cooperative games fit our play style the best, and both offer great gameplay.

Overview

All styles have a similar board setup, with a central human capital and an additional adjoining board for each alien player. Location cards are played on the spaces when aliens move to an undiscovered one, and each have a Terror rating (victory points for the controller) and a Resistance score. The resistance score determines the number of battles a player will do with human defenders from the Resistance deck. Watch out! Those crafty humans have ways of joining forces and some cards will stack and give bonuses. Woe to the saucerperson who finds Captain Fantastic… he’s the toughest the humans have to offer, a pulp-era hero ready to swing his super-powered fists at any alien daring to land on his planet! A dice roll for each side, plus modifiers, determines the outcome, though cards in players’ hands can, of course, alter outcomes. Simple resolution, meaningful choices… perfect for a theme-heavy game of this sort.

My thoughts

I love this game. It’s just that simple. This is a game that can be equally enjoyed by those looking for a game with a quirky, fun theme, or a more strategy-oriented player. Granted, there is enough randomness here that hardcore eurogamers may have cause to turn up their noses, but this isn’t for them. This is an experience in a box. If you have ever delighted in watching a cheeseball low-fi movie with aliens and rayguns, check this game out. You won’t regret it. My advice is to make a night of it; try watching something like The Green Slime (1968, rating a whopping 3.8 of 10 stars at IMDB!), or maybe just an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series after playing the game. You’ll have a blast!

I really like Race for the Galaxy. It’s a good game. I would call it more tactical than strategic, but sometimes that’s what is called for. It really takes the system of San Juan and up the ante. It is very satisfying to build up a tableau of planets and developments and then throw down a couple six-point develpoments that makes your score skyrocket.

My biggest issue is teaching the game. It’s a steep buy-in to learn the iconography, and more casual gamers will almost always be put off by it. Then add in the fiddly rules of the expansions… and suddenly I have a great game that I absolutely never want to teach to anyone again.

I had crazy fun my first several plays of Cranium. Just silly, over-the-top laughs. It was indeed an excellent party game and icebreaker. The game, though, can get a little dull after a while. Once you realize the time commitment, then things go downhill. I still have fondness for the game, though, but I recommend Cranium Turbo. This speeds things up. If you have the basic game and can’t justify the time, upgrade to Turbo.

A very light game. I played this with my 5 year old daughter and enjoyed it. It can be played as a counting game with young kids, and, fortunately, requires no reading, making it viable for pre-kindergarteners. It doesn’t really stand as much for adult gamers, though. A few playthroughs and you are going to be done. Great for playing with young kids, though. You really can make it fun with pirate talk, too!

I’ll start this by saying I am not a fan of D&D 4E. I will, however, say that the Dungeon Master’s Guide has some gems in it (some that I use in Pathfinder). Skill challenges are great. They provide a good template for cinematic action. Best used in combat, where multiple things are going on. The idea that different charactters contribute different things is great, and this can allow non-focal character to have a meaningful role in a given encounter. If for no other reason, borrow this book from a friend and read this section.

Ticket to Ride (TTR) is an excellent game to introduce people to the wide world of hobby gaming. It is quick to learn and understand, and first-time players can be competive from their first playthrough, which cannot be said about most hobby games. The importance of that factor cannot be understressed: first-time players can easily be turned off if they get completely shut out their first game. Alan Moon really got it just right with this one. No, this is not a game that hits my table too often. But i have lots of fond memories playing this one with my wife and her mother, and sometimes her uncle. If you want to convinve your family to play games with you, it is hard to go wrong with this one. It is is beautifully illustrated and well-balanced.

I like this game quite a bit. Before having kids, my wife and I played it quite a few times but it was never on the top ten. It has still not cracke dthe top ten, but playing it with my 5 year old is great. You can totally see the gears turning. I fully believe that this game is helping her better understand spatial concepts.

Puzzle Strike is a real gem of a game- literally! You know those games for consoles or computers that have you breaking gems, like Bejeweled or Puzzle Quest? Puzzle Strike is sort of like an analog version of that.I almost said “board game”, but there’s no board. It has a Dominion-like “deckbuilding” mechanic… although you’re not building a deck, you are instead buying chips that you will draw from a bag. Players each have a gem pile that is growing, and, if left unchecked, will cause you to lose. Every turn, you add another to the pile. You use your chips to perform “fighting combos” that usually result in you breaking gems and sending them to your opponent’s pile. What makes it really interesting is that you each play a character. There are ten characters to play, and each has three unique character chips. The game is a blast, and is rapidly becoming one of our favorite games. My wife and I have yet to play it more than two player, but I’m certain that it will translate well to multiplayer. Definitely worth the purchase!

I have owned Stone Age for nearly a year, and I like it quite a bit. It may seem odd to write a review a year after the fact, but I just played it again last night with my wife and five year old daughter and wanted to say a few words. This was the first worker placement game I have introduced my daughter to, and I thought that this one would be a good intro.

The basic goal of Stone Age is to use your workers to gather materials to build things and hunt/gather to feed themselves. You gain victory points by spending the resources you gather to buy tiles and development cards. Players take turns placing one or more workers on spaces on the board. After all workers are placed, you check for earning resources by rolling a die for each worker plaed on a spot, and divide it by the number given. This makes food and wood relatively easy to gather, and stone and gold significantly harder. There are also action spaces where you may gain a new worker, create a food income, or buy a development card or a tile.

With my daughter, we chose to eliminate the cards and the tool tiles (tiles you may use to improve dice rolls). We explained the division by telling her to make sets of numbers. For instance, gathering wood has you divide by three, so we told her to make sets of three. This is much, much easier to explain than division! She caught on quick and enjoyed it quite a bit.

To sum up, I like the game. It is by far the simplest of the worker placement games (compare to Agricola, Caylus, Pillars of the Earth or Keythedral). A five year old is not quite ready to play it fully, but the fact that none of the play requires reading make this one to definitely try with the kids. For advice on teaching games to kids, my profile has a link to my family’s gaming blog where we explore that regularly.

I just had the opportunity to play the Dungeons and Dragons Castle Ravenloft game, and I have to say that I am disappointed. Reviews I have read implied that the game was somewhat of a cross between D&D 4th edition and Betrayal at House on the Hill (an excellent cooperative game with multiple scenarios). I really wanted to like this game. Though not a fan of D&D 4th edition, I did consider that ruleset would make a great boardgame. Sadly, I found this game to be severely lacking.

The way the game is structured, you have a scenario with a win condition known at the start of the game (the sessions I played were an escort mission, and a quest to kill a dracolich). Players then take turns moving and exploring, with player turns working much like D&D turns. The exploration system is my primary problem with the game. You go to the edge of the board, and lay down a random tile. Every tile has a monster, and every monster immediately attacks the character. There is no opportunity for reaction, tactics, etc. There are several reasons why this is problematic.

D&D characters have strengths and weaknesses. Take, for example, the wizard. A wizard’s strength is being able to attacks enemies from afar, often multiple ones. Their weakness is typically lack of ability to take damage, represented by a low hit point total. Castle Ravenloft’s Exploration/Encounter system heavily penalizes the wizard character for having fewer hit points than the other characters. We came to realize that this character was just not viable for playing.

Another weakness is the Exploration/Encounter system, as I mentioned before. Every exploration reveals an enemy. And while it is nice that all players cooperate, the tactics they use largely make them feel the same.

Another game that occupies this same conceptual space is Descent. Also a dungeon crawl game, Descent has one player operate as the Overlord, controlling the monsters. Its gameplay is smoother and more satisfying, but it does not play so quickly. A better horror exploration game that plays in a similar amount of time is Betrayal at House on the Hill (mentioned earlier). Primarily cooperative, it uses a traitor mechanic that causes one player to unexpectedly betray the party, which sets into motion a story-driven scenario, where both the traitor and the rest of the players have distinct win conditions.

To sum up, this is not a good game. There are planty of other good cooperative games to measure this against. The poorly-conceived systems diminish its playability, and its small number of scenarios limit its replayability. I would seriously consider either of the games previously mentioned above this.

Apples to Apples is an alright game, and I have hd fun with it. This is best used as an icebreaker game, and maybe as a agteway game to warm up non-gamers to the idea of playing more interesting games. Beware, though… some light gamers may want to overdo it if it is too prominently displayed on your game shelf.

This game is quite crazy. You have to set up your turn ahead of time, planning moves and (hopefully!) anticpating the moving board elements, various hazards and other players. It’s great for people with logical minds (programmers!), but still crazy hilarious fun for others. A great game by the creator of Magic: The Gathering!

Ascension is a deckbuilding game. What does that mean? For those of you familiar with Dominion, this is a game using the same basic mechanic. For those of you new to the concept, here’s how it goes. You start the game with a deck. A small deck. On your turn, you acquire cards for your deck. Purchased cards typically go into your discard pile, which you shuffle when you get through your deck. This adds purchasing power for better cards and easier acquisition of point cards. You shuffle a lot. The concept started with Dominion, and has been popping up in other games like Thunderstone and Ascension. It’s a good mechanic, and it makes games that use it easy to teach since you begin the game with a premade deck of just a couple different kinds of cards.

Ascension works for 2-4 players. It has a board to organize the cards. There is a deck of characters and monsters to defeat or purchase, and some spiffy plastic crystals to track Honor (victory points). Six cards are laid out on the board, and these are either going to be characters which go in your deck (purchased with Runes), monsters to defeat (using Power) or constructs, which are cards that go through your deck that you may play into your play area and they stay in effect indefinitely. Most characters will provide Power and/or Runes. Runes are the currency you use to buy cards, and Power is what you
use to defeat enemies. You can buy as many characters or constructs and/or fight as many enemies as you have the Power and Runes for in your turn.

I like this game quite a bit. It is simple. Ascension is much less of an endeavor to set up than Dominion is. We own all the released sets for Dominion, and it really seems like a monumental undertaking to set up. Ascension, on the other hand, just requires you to grab a starting deck, lay out the board, shuffle the card supply and count out the Honor crystals. The simplicity of this makes it much more likely to hit the table if just my wife and I are playing. Additionally, the possibility of buying characters and fighting enemies in the same turn is nice, especially compared to Thunderstone’s clunky dungeon mechanic.

Tales of the Arabian Nights is an adventure game set in the mythical world of Middle Eastern folklore. You will find talk of friendli Djinni, wicked Efreeti and scheming viziers.The way the game works is that you have a character chosen at the start of the game, such as Sindbad, Aladdin or Scheherazade. You then choose a victory condition, which is a number of Story points and Destiny points that together total 20 points. What you do then is travel the world and have encounters. You determine the encounter by drawing from an Encounter deck and then rolling on a chart in the Book of Tales, which determines what you encounter. After what you encounter is determined, the player decides how he responds. Each category will have a list of responses, and this will result in a paragraph from the Book of Tales, which in turn may give choices based on skills your character possesses. That may seem like a lot to digest, but here is an example:

I am playing Aladdin, and on my turn a I move a few spaces. I then draw an Encounter card, which is a Prophet. The card also has a number which corresponds to a chart in the Book of Tales. I roll a number on this chart, giving the Prophet an adjective: he is now a Mad Prophet. I then choose how to react to him. In this case, I will Rob him (I am Aladdin, a street rat, after all!). Another player who has a list compares my choice to a list and tells the player with the book what paragraph to read. The paragraph indicates that I stage a scheme with accomplices to take his wealth, and it goes well, but alas, he is poor. There are then two results, based on whether or not I have a specific skill. I do not, thereforefore I earn a single Destiny point and my turn is over and passes to the next player.

What I like about the game

What I like about this game is that it is an adventure game that seems to have enough variation to play over and over again. The number of encounters make it unlikely that one will repeat in the same game. A common issue with games in the genre is that they easily go stale. After about 5-7 plays, I still see myself playing this game more. As a person with a game library of more than 300 games, that is saying a lot. I’d play this over Runequest or Talisman any day.

What I dislike

There are some statuses that a character can acquire that sometimes seem a bit punitive. In addition to awards, a character may end up with a status of some sort. Some are good (Blessed and Vizier, for example), some are a mixed bag (Married and On Pilgrimmage), and some are just nasty (Accursed, Enslaved and Grief Stricken). The mentioned ones are not the entire list, but the bad ones just seem to stick around forever and some take away choices, or require specific choices. A minor dislike, but worth noting.

Final verdict

Tales of the Arabian Nights is a great adventure game. Don’t open the box and expect to play this like a strategy game, though: it just isn’t. You can’t reliably expect to plan a strategy and execute it. It’s a fun, random romp through a story-rich world. Expect to be amused by this light-hearted and enjoyable game.

Race for the Galaxy (RftG) is an excellent strategy card game with a fun space theme. In it, players settle planets and build developments. A game round starts with each player secretly selecting an action card, then revealing the actions selected together. Each action card selected means an action is available for all players that round, and the selecting player gets some privelege for being the one who selected it. Actions include Explore (drawing cards), Settle and Develop (for purchasing a planet or development card, respectively, among others. Game play continues until someone has played the twelfth card in their tableau (play area), after which victory points are added up.

An expansion to this game I cannot play it without is The Gathering Storm (TGS). TGS is the first of three expansions for the game. As expected, it adds a few cards to the pretty large amount in the base game. These cards are pretty well balanced and fill thematic and mechanical “holes” in the base game. For example, some cards have keywords that can be relevant when scoring happens. This adds more of those cards, which allow more interesting combinations. What really stands out, however, are the goal cards.

The goal cards are a set of goals that are randomly dealt out each game. Two large goals each worth five victory points and four small goals each worth three are in each game. The large goals function like the Longest Road/Largest Army cards in Settlers of Catan, in that they can change hands during the course of the game. One is for largest military, for example, and another is for largest number of large developments. The small ones are for the first person to reach the goal. These add some serious considerations for gameplay, since sometimes a few points can be the difference in first and second place in scoring. And if your draws aren’t getting you the planets types you want, you can try focusing on the goal cards so that you’re earning points while you’re waiting to draw the next rare minerals world, or big development.

To summarize, I wouldn’t play RftG without this expansion. The other two expansions don’t seem as critical, as I can easily see playing without the additional rules from the Rebel vs. Imperium or Brink of War expansions (Prestige points and takeovers come to mind). This expansion really made Race for the Galaxy a better game. So, if you own the game, try this expansion if you haven’t already. And share your thoughts! Tell us what you think of this expansion, or any other expansion for any game you cannot see playing without!

Flashback: I pick up the 3rd Edition D&D Player’s Handbook. I had been on a bit of a hiatus from roleplaying games after moving to Oregon to finish college. I played 2nd Edition extensively in high school, and after moving away for college, I played sporadically when it came up. I even started a short-lived but fun campaign as the Dungeon Master. I decided to pop into my FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) and check this out. I was not disappointed.

When I opened that book, I felt I had in my hands the ability to create any type of character I could imagine. Where earlier editions had fairly rigid archetypes, the customizability of character creation in 3rd Ed. was excellent. Skills, feats, generous multiclassing… I loved it. In short order, I found the university’s gaming club, where I met other roleplayers… including my wife through the club via a listserve… to (surprise, surprise!) play D&D 3E. But I digress. Back to 3rd Edition….

Another gem of D&D 3rd Edition was the Open Gaming License (OGL). The basic system of D&D, called the D20 system, was open source. This means that third party publishers could create adventures, supplements, campaign worlds, etc., based on this system. And they did. Lots. This really opened the field for a lot of innovation, and great product lines rose from this. It was a great thing to experience. And it lasted for several years. And then 4th Edition D&D was announced.

At first, I was pretty thrilled by the announcement. I was pretty happy with the direction of the product line thus far, and was excited to see where they would take it. After all, they’d really made it shine, they’re just going to do more of the same, right? Wrong.

I started being skeptical when Wizards of the Coast started giving previews. I just didn’t feel behind what they were doing, but I still kept reservedly optimistic.But each subsequent preview made it really seem that something was not going right, in my opinion. And then it was released. I’ll admit, I went to my FLGS to pick it up at midnight. Yup, I’m a geek and not ashamed to admit it!

So, I’m not going to review 4th Ed. I’ll just say that I was unimpressed by character creation, and the fact that every character class pretty much does the same thing with slightly different window dressing. It wasn’t ever, “What’s YOUR cool power?”, it was always “What’s your 3d6 + ability modifier power?”. Basically, they’re all the same. At least it seems like that to me. Feats are also stripped of all flavor. And the archetypes and pretty rigid, backsliding to 2nd Edition. Among other things. All in all, it seems like a pen-and-paper MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game), probably by intention.

Another point of note was the Gaming System License (GSL) for 4th Edition. Whereas the OGL was very permissive and encouraged third parties, the GSL did everything it could to say that Wizard of the Coast could terminate your rights to publish 4th Edition-compatible material at their whim. It is very restrictive, though there are quite a few third party publishers who do use it. I’m not impressed with it, though. And, as I understand, the GSL itself exists only because a lot of people pushed Hasbro (Wizards’ parent company) really hard.

So… yeah. This post isn’t really about bashing 4th edition, Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro. I just wanted to convey my disappointment about the system, as compared with my previous experiences. I have played 4th Edition a bit, and enjoyed it; it’s just not what I want to spend my small amount of roleplaying time playing. I’ve chosen to look to the Pathfinder line by Paizo Publishing as my RPG of preference. To put credit where credit is due, Pathfinder is based on the 3rd edition OGL. I recommend checking this system out if you haven’t already.

One of our my acquisitions is 51st State, a card game from Toy Vault based in the Neuroshima world (like Neuroshima Hex). There has been quite a bit of buzz about this one, often with it being compared to Race for the Galaxy. In fact, many claim it will effectively replace Race for the Galaxy in your collection. I want to share how we’re feeling about the game after a handful of sessions under our belts. For those of you not familiar with the Neuroshima world, it is a post-apocalypic North America with various factions vying for power. It was originally based on the Polish roleplaying game Neuroshima. The designer of 51st State, Ignacy Trzewiczek, is also one of the designers of both the Neuroshima roleplaying game and Neuroshima Hex. For those of you familiar with Fallout, what I’ve seen and read about it seems a lot like the world depicted in that series of videogames. It’s an interesting setting, and the art of the cards does a great job of conveying the post-apocalyptic theme.

The rules of the game are not too complex, though I must indicate that the rulebook isn’t that great. It meanders a bit, and some things are not referred to throughout but not explained until the very end. That being said, a couple reads and look at some online resources helped us get started. It starts with players selecting cards from several set out at the beginning of the turn. After card selction, players earn an income and then take turn executing actions. Actions can be playing a location (more on this later), using a production location with a worker, playing a leader, rebuilding a location or a couple other minor actions. Play continues until all players have passed. For the most part, gameplay is multiplayer solitaire, much like Race for the Galaxy, or even Dominion.

Most of the cards you’ll see are locations, and locations are very interesting in this game. Each location may be played in one of three ways, each with a color associated with it. The most basic function is white, and that is putting the card in your play area as a location; doing this can derive one of several benefits, such as giving an income of a resource, or being able to produce victory points or having a trait that stays in effect. Some are production locations that you, or sometimes an opponent, may play a worker on to get its benefit. Another option is to make a deal, which is the blue action. This will give you a modest income of its resource (or sometimes a card or victory points) each turn. The final action, denoted as red, is to conquer the location. This will yield a one-time windfall of resources, cards or victory points. This is a definite strength of the game. Each time you look at a card, you have to decide how you want to play it. It’s a very interesting tactical consideration, and very thematic to the world.

Each player takes on the role of one of the world’s factions. There are four: Mutants, New York, Appalachian Federation and the Merchant’s Guild. Each faction is trying top establish dominance by controlling areas. They each play a little different. The differences are not huge, but somewhat thematic. This is reflected in how they spend resources to accomplish the three basic actions for dealing with a location, and income they receive in the resources present in the game: scrap, building materials, weapons and fuel. As can be expected, each has an advantage towards one of the basic location actions.

I have to say I’ve been enjoying this game. Rulebook woes aside, it’s a great game. There is certainly a bit of randomness with the limited card availability per turn, but the cards seem balanced enough that you won’t have a situation where you need to fish for cards to implement your chosen strategy. It has enough complexity to be interesting, without dictating a dominant strategy.The stated playing time is 40-90 minutes, and is accurate. It hits the “sweet spot” for games in regard to fun versus time spent. 51st State gets a solid recommendation from me. I encourage you to give it a try!

I have roleplayed in the Iron Kingdoms, the setting for Warmachine & Hordes, for over a decade. The setting was originally made for the d20 adventure series The Witchfire Trilogy. Two years ago, Privateer Press released a new system for roleplaying in the Iron Kingdoms based on the Warmachine rules. A great advantage to this is that if you like the wargame, learning the RPG is simple. And you can use the same models, with the same stat cards! It allows you to scratch your wargaming & roleplaying itches together. Plus, you can make more dynamic casual scenarios with solos built from the IKRPG rules.

Painted miniatures always look better on the table. I personally got into Warmachine & Hordes through roleplaying and the hobby aspect, and that has always been important for me. Even if you don’t consider yourself a great painter, a handful of basic techniques can make your models look good. One method to get your models looking tabletop-ready quick is to do basecoats, and then use a “dip”. This both adds shading, and seals the model. A can of Minwax Polyshades Black Satin can be picked up in the hardware section of any store, is under ten bucks and well worth the price. Since it’s also polyurethane, it protects both the paintjob, and makes the model itself more durable. It’s a quick and inexpensive alternative to spending hours per model. Though to be honest, I enjoy that part. 🙂

For a long time, my wife & I rebuffed the idea of sleeving our Magic cards. They seemed like an unnecessary expense, especially for us “kitchen table” players. Over the years, though, we have seen our cards show wear. Additionally, we have started going to Magic events: prereleases, Friday Night Magic, and various others. We have noticed that playing on card shop tables is horrific for cards. Then we started sleeving. Then we noticed that those same tables are horrific on sleeves. For the longest time, we regard sleeves and playmats as “bling”. But now it is clear that sleeves are worth the price to protect your cards, and playmats are definitely worth it to protect your sleeves.

I have been playing Standard format Magic for a while now. I’m not great, but I’m learning. Every now and then I get a great tip. Currently, some of the top-tier decks (and ones I encounter most!) are using Thoughtseize, and/or other effects that allow you to look at a player’s hand, or a card from it. Though it seems obvious now, I found that players will note the art of the land cards so that the next time you play a land, that will tell them if you have another to drop if it does not match what they saw. It’s a subtle thing, but I have noticed the serious players try to minimize any and all info about what they have in their hand. Using all the same card art for each basic land type will keep some of your secrets safe!

I am currently painting a friend’s Super Dungeon Explore set… and it is a MASSIVE undertaking. I am a mini painter, and I love doing it. But my advice is to have a plan going in. I personally use a free app called Trello to set up my painting queue, though I hear some use spreadsheets to track. After you have listed all your figs, prioritize. Paint your heroes first, since they’ll see the most use. Then paint the bosses and minibosses. After that, paint the minions, denizens and spawn points assembly-line style. That means paint all the same sculpt together. That way you can make sure you use the same colors. These minis are super fun to paint, but make a plan & don’t get overwhelmed!

As a runner, it is enticing to spend all of the early game building your rig. But I advise you to run as early as you can, especially on HQ. Also, whenever the corp is low on credits. It can be a game-changer to pull an early agenda that isn’t well protected, or to test which pieces of ice the corp can’t quite afford to rez yet. Most cheap ice is going to be “End The Run” anyway, and forcing the corp to pay for that can mean they can’t afford to play better operations, or to rez nastier ice.

If you are familiar with Magic: The Gathering, you will know that there are a variety of formats. Standard is the most common, but draft and sealed are a lot of fun, too… plus they have the added bonus of putting people on more or less equal footing financially. If you find yourself opening booster packs, my recommendation would be to put the cards back in the pack after you’ve checked them out. If you take out a card, put another of the same rarity from the same set back in. That way, you can draft them or use them for sealed formats without having to buy new packs each time. Of course, this would be for informal & friendly matches. But it really allows you to get the most out of packs by using them for different formats.

Want to learn Magic on your own, but it seems too intimidating? Try Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013. It’s available for both XBox 360 and iPad. The basic decks in the game are pretty straightforward, and once you feel you want to take it to the next level, there is online play. A few hours of playing alone and a couple playing online should get you to where you’re ready to go to the local game store and sit down at a table with someone. You’re likely going to get schooled your first few times, but you’ll have the base skills to build off of toward becoming a capable player.

Starting out is always the toughest part. If you’re new to the site, really consider hitting those game exploration quests early. They’re pretty good packages and will help you save for the awesome avatar you know you want. Additionally, if you have played those games and have tips, reviews or strategies, type them up and put them on those first. Those games are getting a lot oftraffic and will help you with the early Critic & Professor quests. Please note that it counts only Likes toward those goals, so make sure what you post has substance.

Assuming that you are earning the gold to do it (or buying gems), I advise picking your most favorite game and focusing your hearts on that. That’s the best way to hit the Hearts quest rewards (in Gamer quests). At one point you’ll want to branch out a little to meet the Knight-Errant quest (25 hearts each to 10 games), but come back to the primary game and keep piling them on that one. I have diverged a little from that, but not much, and it has helped my Gamer level quite a bit.

One thing I have found is that many hands will get clogged with sub-optimal cards, especially getting toward late game. While it is hard to justify spending your action on removing cards, definitely consider this mid-game. If your are a colonist, the Colonize cards will definitely proliferate. Keep them under control! The action you’re investing earlier will yield great returns later in the game.

There are at least a couple cards in Magic: The Gathering who have life totals as triggers for effects. While some make sense to keep as is (Ruthless Cullblade, who gains power and toughness when an opponent is below 10 life), some do not. I’m thinking in particular those who trigger at what would be higher-than-starting totals in Standard. In particular, I’m thinking of Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant and Serra Ascendant, who both have powers that trigger when the controller has 30 or more life. As intended, the controller will have had to gained 10 life of his starting total. I would advise that in Commander format, these trigger at 50 life. Otherwise, you have a card that is undercosted for the power it offers.

I dislike metagaming, and I think anything you can do to reduce metagaming is great thing. For instance, Perception checks. If you ask a player to roll a Perception check, he knows something is going on, even on a failed check. The metagamer will act on this knowledge, and all of a sudden the PC is on emergency lockdown procedures even though he should be unaware of anything happening. To prevent this, I use a rule introduced in D&D 4E: the passive Perception check. When the PC is not actively looking, he is effectively “taking 10” and has a check of 10 + Perception skill check bonus. Opponents will still make checks, however, it will just be compared to the PC’s passive Perception score. This has the additional bonus of speeding things up, too!

Stone Age is an excellent light worker placement game. If you want to pay this with the under 8 crowd, here is a variant that you can use to scaffold up to the full game.
1. No cards. Eliminate them for now, and make these the last thing you introduce.
2. Half the tiles. Cater to and expect a shorter attention span.
3. No worker placement for tile buying. Just have a phase after collecting resources, starting with the player with the starting token. Buy one, then keep going around until nobody wants to buy more.
4. No tools.
5. No food income; all food from hunting.
6. Start with all 10 workers, and no worker acquisition.

Introduce one new thing each playthrough. I highly recommend making the cards last, due to the math of then symbols. Pretty soon, your little person will be playing the full game!

Here’s a tip: try this as a two player game. The two player experience of games that list players ‘2-X’ is often lacking, but not in this game. The length of time and the buildup are just about right, and I actually prefer the two payer play of ED more than the three player. It’s simplicity makes this a great coffee shop game. But definitely keep this on the list when you just have one person to play with you, since it definitely gets it right!

In our playthroughs, my group noted that especially with the Utopian planets in the mix, it was really frustrating to survey and not get planets you need. We decided that it may be worthwhile to make two piles of planets. When you lead or follow with Survey, you may choose either pile, one at a time. You -must- declare how many cards you are using before, but this allows a little more control.

Imperial Balkania’s ability to get cards for expanding into 4 or more territories is a powerhouse early game, especially in three player games! Since victory points can be acquired by cashing in four cards, your first two turns can get you halfway to your third vistory point. Or, it will give you assets to cash in for more troops. It’s my top pick among the factions’ base powers.

When I set up a scenarion for Memoir ’44, I first put out a single figure for each unit per hex. I find it is easier, faster and more accurate to focus on getting the correct type out first, then sifting through and counting after that is done. Try it next time you play this awesome game!

My plays of this game have been dominated by the “runaway leader” phenomenon. It is exceedingly easy to lose board position early on and be unable to catch up. This is so bad in this game that I would recommend only ever playing it with the same group; a new player will not likely be competitive for several games.

There is a reason some cards are Mythic Rares. Take Eldrazi Monument, for instance. This is a 5 cost artifact that gives all creatures you control +1/+1, Flying and Indestructible. The downside? You must sacrifice a creature at the beginning of your upkeep. If you can’t, sacrifice Eldrazi Monument. I have been stomped a few times by this card. It’s really good in a deck with Eldrazi and when using Eldrazi Spawn, or other token creatures. When this hits the table, though… the endgame is near! Another good reason to have artifact removal in your deck. Here is a link to the card in The Gatherer: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193398

I have played EDH format (Elder Dragon Highlander, later called Commander) for about a year now, and I have to say it is my favorite format. In particular, I like it because the format de-emphasizes reliably getting a couple “power cards” and pulling off your combo as soon as possible. Since there are 100 different cards (well, likely 60-65 non-land cards) it gives you the leeway to play cool things that might not otherwise get into a deck. For instance, take the Eldrazi. They tend to be huge, high-cost and game altering. The named Eldrazi range in cost from 8-12 (excluding Emrakul, banned in this format), have Annhilator 1-4 and usually another neat ability. The simple cost of these makes these tough to justify including in a Constructed deck. But EDH/Commander, being a format that assumes longer games and greater buildup, makes these fun additions. The fact that all the named ones are colorless allows you to put them in any deck, as well as smaller Eldrazi that are color-appropriate (there are smaller Red, Green and Black ones). In my sort of Cthulhu-themed Wrexial (Blue/Black) deck, I have Ulamog, Skittering Invasion, Pathrazer of Ulamog, Not of This World, It That Betrays, Eldrazi Conscription, Dread Drone, Eldrazi Temple and Eye of Ugin. I really enjoy these cards, and love the reactions of people when they hit the table. Additionally, Ulamog is useful for preventing a loss due to milling.

One of my favorite cards in Magic is Tainted Strike. It’s a pretty simple card: it is an instant from Scars of Mirrodin that costs one black mana, and gives target creature +1/+0 and Infect until end of turn. Simple, right? There are lost of great uses for this! I believe my favorite use of all time is to cast it on another player’s creature as it attacks a third player. Not many expect third parties to intervene in combat, even in multiplayer, but its effect can be devastating. Especially if you attach it to a big creature. Or you you can use it to cripple a big creature by slapping it on one of your blockers (Infect does -1/-1 counters on creatures). I’ve even prevented myself from being eliminated from a game by casting it on a huge creature attacking me. I tend to be the only one using Infect and Poison, so that is usually pretty safe. I love this card! Here is the link to the card on Gatherer: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=209049

Hey there! I have a fun tip for those of you who have a favorite deck: make a custom box! I painted a standard cardbox for my daughter for a deck we just gave her. She wanted to play Commander with us, so my wife built her a deck based on Damia, Sage of Stone and I painted up a box for it. Here’s the result:

In Constructed format, 10 poison counters on a player eliminates them from the game. According to official rules, this stays the same. I recommend making this 15 poison counters to eliminate. The reasoning behind this is that it makes Infect decks (decks using the Infect mechanic, which deals damage to players as poison counters) more powerful in Commander format. In a format where longer play times are the norm, it makes less sense to speed player elimination. I say this as someone who primarily plays a Blue/Black infect deck.

The science symbols are key to either build or control (through discarding or using them in wonders). You don’t have to necessarily build them, but you don’t want one player to build them all and score off them uncontested. I advise choosing leaders with the science symbols and going for a science victory. My highest score was from going this route.

A great strategy for this game, if you are able to do it reasonably, is to take out the opponent’s walls. The Guild Dwarves seem best-equipped to do this, with units that get bonuses for this. Without walls, or open spaces adjacent to walls, a summoner cannot summon. Likewise, be willing to place units to block the oponent’s wall spaces. It’s a really good control strategy for the game.

one of the great things about this expansion is that it adds the goals in. It is important in games that use these to not lose site of these goals! Often, the margin between winning and losing is pretty slim, and a few points (even a two-point goal!) can make all the difference. It can even help cope with a runaway leader, which can happen in this game.

Use every card in your hand, every turn if you can! Seriously, maximize your possible effectiveness. Your cards get replenished. It may seem worthwhile to squirrel one away, but burning through them is best.

Quarriors is a nice little game and I like the play of it a lot. My biggest issue was that it always seemed over before you could actually do anything. Granted, speedy play is nice, but when end conditions make it seem that you weren’t able to execute anything neat, then it needs to be reviewed. What my wife and I have done is that we have started always playing to 20 points, no matter how many players are in the game. A four players game should end at 12 points, but I’ve seen several tiimes players not scoring at all. It really seems like a more satisfying experience to play a little bit longer.

One thing that is really cool about this game is the high-quality sculpted miniatures. I paint minis, and, as soon as I can spend a little extra time on projects like this, I am going to prime the sculpted pieces and “dip” them in varnish. This will let the features really pop on them. Ink or varnish will slightly pool in the recesses and the raised features will really shine and contrast with the recessed parts.

My biggest complaint with Cranium is the time it takes to play. I advise pretending the slow track is just not there. This is effectively how the Cranium Turbo game is, and I highly advise using that all the time. If you crave more Cranium than that provides, mix up teams and play again!

…in Pathfinder. If you get lazy as a GM, crack this open and make a level-appropriate encounter for a Pathfinder group. It mixes things up a bit by adding Bloodied effects and recharging abilities. I’m no fan of 4E, but most of my complaints are with the player experience. The MM and the DMG have some very good content that could be used in a 3.x/Pathfinder setting.

My wife and I have had this game since it was released, and picked up the iPhone app as soon as it was available. The app is great for killing time at a coffee shop or in a movie line when a physical game would be impractical. The app also has the Late Bronze Age expansion.

Leaders are very important in this game. My advice is that early on, be willing to spend extra resources to get one. If at all possible, get Hammurabi. The action boost is essential. It’s important to note that this is a resource management game, and actions are the most important resources. Be willing to spend generously early on to snag a leader that will boost your actions.

I love this game. Though we do not currently play it a lot now, the gameplay is significantly enhanced by having the optional wooden animals, vegetables and grain. They are much easier to sort than the tiny wooden cubes, and during play, your farm looks more like a farm. It will possibly make the game look less initimating if you to teach it to someone, as well.

A strict reading of the rules of Apples to Apples says that the last card is not counted (to speed things up)… I advise against this. Since you’ll most likely be playing with nongamers, arbitrary rules that exclude are not good and may leave some with a bad taste in their mouth if they tend to be slower to decide or more prone to analysis paralysis. If the game slows, have the judge randomly choose the last one’s card.

Magic: The Gathering. Every gamer you know has an opinion on it. Love it or hate, it’s probably the most profitable game out there and has a strong following that should ensure its persistence for years to come. But my first impression of the game wasn’t great.

A skeptical start

I first encountered Magic as a teenager. A friend had a couple decks and we played a few games. It was interesting, the art was fun, but it really didn’t capture my imagination. A few years later when I was managing a coffee shop, a couple fellow employees decided to try it out. There was a comic shop down the hall and we decided to each grab a starter deck, and then only expand when we all decided to pick up a booster to keep it fair. By this time, I had already written the game off as a “rich kid wins” game, but was willing to play around to pass an hour every now and then on slow nights. It was okay… I’m not sure we played more than a few times before getting bored.

So… the early experiences weren’t stellar, and I made it a point to avoid the game. The people I knew who played spent a lot of cash on it, and that never seemed like a great idea. And so a decade passed.

A new beginning

Recently, my wife got hooked on the XBox 360 game Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers. One thing led to another and pretty soon she harassed me into picking up a couple premade decks and play. Grumbling, I eventually conceded and tried it out. She and I have played fairly regularly for the last year now. This past year, we decided that since we mostly just played each other, we could come up with an ongoing game with some persistent elements that carried over from game to game… sort of a campaign.

Campaigning, Planeswalker-style!

For those of you unfamiliar with Magic, the premise is that you are planeswalking wizards fighting for supremacy. You win by either attacking your opponent and depleting his hit points (the basic game starts you with 20) or depleting their deck (referred to as your spellbook). Decks are usually 60 cards and assembled with cards that (ideally) synergize with one another. Our variant had us starting out as novice planeswalkers. We started with 10 hit points, a hand size of 5 (instead of 7) and had a pool of 90 random cards to assemble our decks. As we played, we both gained random cards and had the option to spend cards to increase hand size, hit point total and gain other benefits that extended beyond the present match. The mechanic we used was that we spent rare cards to gain these benefits. I’m not going to exhaustively go through the exact mechanical details, but we loved this format. In particular, it helped me learn more about the art of building decks. I encourage you to try some campaign-style play!

A great way to introduce this game to kids as young as three is to introduce it as a boardless matching game. Use the player aids to tell the sets of cards they’re trying to put together and just draw from the face-up piles. This way, when you actually try to play the full game, the child has a frame of reference and will pick it up more easily. My daughter wrote this review of the game at four:

This weekend I played in the Magic: The Gathering Dragons of Tarkir prerelease with my wife & 9 year old daughter. It was a load of fun! We didn’t win a heck of a lot, but we did walk away with some great new cards, and some spiffy promo cards from a dice-tossing minigame. Really fond of the Dash mechanic that was introduced last set and heavily represented in this set in the colors I played (red & black).

This weekend we are having some new friends over who have been Magic players, but are relatively new to board gaming. In addition to Pauper format Magic, we’ll be playing some classics like Ticket To Ride, Settlers of Catan, Munchkin and maybe one or two other games they saw on Tabletop. 🙂

I’ll be playing some Magic: The gathering with the wife, who will also be playing some Magic in the shop with our daughter. Our 8 year old daughter has been playing since 4, and has now asked to play competitively in our local shop when we go. I’ll probably be painting some Super Dungeon Explore minis, as well.

My wife’s birthday is tomorrow, and that happens to coincide with the release of a new set of Magic: The Gathering. So we just picked up a box of Journey Into Nyx boosters, and we will be drafting and playing sealed deck.

I’ll be playing some Magic: The Gathering at the Journey Into Nyx prerelease event. Sealed events (where you open boosters & make a deck on the spot from what you have opened) with a new set is probably my favorite format. Beyond that, we’ll likely play some Quicksand with the kids, and maybe a game or two of Netrunner.

I’m possibly playing some Friday Night Magic tonight. Dungeon Roll is highly likely, as is Netrunner. A significant possibility exists to game with someone we rarely see, so likely playing something else, as well.

My wife and I are going to be kid-free this weekend. So that means that we’re hitting Friday Night Magic tonight! We’ve also been jonesing to play some Netrunner. I’ll also be using some of the free time to assemble & paint miniatures for Warmachine, Hordes & Super Dungeon Explore.

Escapapade Games has released a massive visual spoiler for their upcoming tabletop roleplaying game Storm Hollow. Storm Hollow is a storytelling adventure game for 2-7 players that plays in about an hour. It combines elements of a board game with role-playing games to create a unique play experience that is focused on telling a great story together. Storm Hollow has been in development for a long time, but is about to go to the printer and expected to be available Q1 2016. We’ll be at Gencon this year with a copy of the game, and we’d love to talk to folks, show off the game, and would appreciate any help getting the word out.

In addition to what Shadrach suggested, I would recommend the Duels of the Planeswalkers game, which is available for just about every platform (we played on the XBox 360 and iPad). It really gives a good breakdown of turn structure and how to play. My wife and I found it really helpful.

@Shadrachanki If I were you, I would pick up an Event Deck to participate in those. My current deck is made from the Born Of The Gods Underworld Herald event deck. It’s not a “top tier” standard deck, but it plays well and it’s pretty competitive. It’s a great value.

Just played the Journey Into Nyx prerelease this weekend, and had loads of fun. I have really enjoyed the prerelease events lately, as they have tried to push the theme of the sets. In the Return To Ravnica block, you chose a guild (a two-color faction) to champion, and in this set you choose a color. You then get a boxed set of effectively six boosters (one of which is a “seeded” booster, heavy on the cards for your chosen color). In the Theros block, there have also been Hero and Weapon cards for the Game Day events. These have been Face The Hydra, Face The Horde and the upcoming Defeat A God. I highly recommend this block.

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Reporter (lvl 4)2387 xp

About Me

Gamer, father, blogger, coffee lover. I am a member of the game design studio Escapade Games, and I blog at Growing Up Gamers.
Twitter: @coffeeswiller